Councilman Williams Update 10/15/25
- lig582
- Oct 17
- 3 min read
Town Manager updates, Police Department receives accreditation, School updates, Three new Planning Commission members appointed, and Lease approved for County EMS in town were all on Wednesday’s agenda.
Council Member Liaison Reports
Economic Development - Their Tuesday meeting was canceled. Business breakfast October 23rd 8am at the Ice House.
Parks and Rec – October 18th beach and beer 5K. October 25th Fall Festival including a golf cart parade.
Public Works - Utility updates. Waste water treatment plant maintenance and cleanings performed. Event support, and Canon restored.
Planning Commission - Congrats to Mr. Long for receiving his certification. Article 13 parking ordinance was approved and is being sent to council. Site plan ordinance is being reviewed and there will be a public hearing in November. They also discussed their work plan. Three applications for new members.
Public Safety – Two new recruits. Three graduates finished field training. Town received accreditation and National Night Out was Tuesday.
Non-governmental - Attended alliance meeting. Next week is restaurant week please support. Alzheimer’s walk Saturday.
Finance – Utilities bills are due, personal property and real estate taxes will be due December 5.
Schools- Attended town/ school collaboration meeting where they discussed budget, audit, CIP projects, maintenance issues and public engagement.
Mayor – Asked people to take the connectivity survey and here’s the link https://colonialbeachdowntown-timmons-group.hub.arcgis.com/pages/get-involved. Nov Work Session moved up a week to Oct 29th. Shout out to Police for Bike Fest and National Night Out. Cannon refurbished.
Town Manager Update
1st Quarter Finance Report, Lisa Okes, Director of Finance/CFO 3rd Quarter Public Safety Report, Chief Parsons - Several statistics were presented including 1,770 service calls. VFD - 153 calls with 58 being fire, 447 hours. EMS – 268 medical calls for CB.
Sewer Plant Update, John Simmons, Inboden Environmental Services - September was quiet with samples being well below requirements. We are well on our way to the goal of 3.0 nitrates per the DEQ requirement.
Police Department Accreditation - Testing was very successful with 192 out of 192 assessments passes. This is a great achievement by our Police Department and they deserve a huge pat on the back for all their hard work. Accreditation is something that I was critical of the Town for losing and I am very happy to see they earned it back. Congrats!!!
Halloween Proclamation - Read by Mayor.
Colonial Beach Public Schools, Dr. Addo, Superintendent - He gave a shout out to the PD for their accreditation. Complemented the School Board and Principals for their hard work. VDOE stats have been delayed, but the preliminary stats look good. Two subgroups the school system needs to work on groups are black students and disabled students. Homecoming was great. Football team is 3-3. $80K Grant was received for safety. Several graduates from the iTeach program. Capital Improvement Projects, including the front entrance and the school board parking lot are underway. Current numbers 350 elementary students 201 high school students for a total of 551.
Public Comment
Citizen - Downtown Colonial Beach representative mentioned restaurant week 20–26. Most restaurants in town are participating businesses and deals can be found on CBrestaurantweek.com
Resolution #30-25, Appointments to the Planning Commission, Angela Lawrence, Director of Community Development & Zoning - 3 new Planning Commission members were voted in. Two start in November and the third starts in December. Bob Christiansen will be leaving in December.
Lauren Adams - November
Annemarie Bairstow - November
Bill Malone - December
Vote was 7-0 for all 3.
All three candidates had great resumes and appear very capable and competent. My only hope is that they will be independent and not rubber-stamps. I’d like to see the planning commission get back to its roots and become more independent versus being controlled by town staff.
Resolution #31-25, Amends and Appropriates Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Budget, General Fund for RLM Difference, Lisa Okes, Director of Finance - The town was $46K short in the school funding for last year‘s local match due to a faulty calculation used by town staff and this was to approve the final payment. Vote 7–0.
Resolution #32-25, Authorizes Town Manager to execute a Lease to the County - this was to approve a short term 2 year $1 per year lease for the County to use the Denison Street location. I believe most people realize now that Westmorland County is running all of our current calls. This is a stopgap until we can work to get a suitable permanent location outside the flood zone.
Councilman David Williams
Please email or call with questions or comments:
540-604-4335
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